Cognitive difficulties, which
tend to show up later on in the disease, can involve memory, mental flexibility, fluency of thought, organization, an inability
to make a mental strategy, and poor communication. The latter can be
especially frustrating to the patients exacerbating other areas. "They can feed off each other a lot," Shannon notes.

There are now 25,000 to 30,000 people afflicted with the disease in the United States. An
additional 150,000 are at risk.

Research on the disease, Shannon explains, involves several areas of study. One is better
treatment of symptoms. "This doesn't affect the long-term degenerative nature of the disease," she notes, "but
it vastly improves the quality of life for the patients."